What’s a good Intel NIC (pci-e, RJ45) for 10GbE? This is a single use PC so a single port is fine but I just want something that’s modern, has good driver support/performance, and just something I can have around/use for several years without issue. All my research points to an Intel NIC but I am not sure which one specifically.
Any recommendations on a model or family of models?
From what I have been able to find an Intel X540-T1 or X550-T1 would be a good choice. Any tips on finding them 2nd hand or finding them from a place that isn’t counterfeit? Seems eBay is full of Chinese knockoffs.
I use x-550 T2’s. They work fine on bsd, Linux and windows. Some people have had good success with the branded aquantia cards which are approx $100. My mobo has an aquantia NIC and works fine on Linux.
Of course finding a suitable reasonably priced switch is the challenge. They are still overpriced and not coming down any time soon.
Just curious, why limit yourself to RJ45?
Because the house is wired with Cat6a. I have jacks in multiple rooms so for ease of use I can just plug in a patch cable and be good to go.
Anyone have suggestions on where I could buy an x540 or x550 card that would be legit and not counterfeit? Or is everyone using the counterfeit eBay ones?
I can’t comment on any specific vendor but both my x550’s were from eBay (,imports from the usual place) and have been running fine in my home server.
YMMV
Have you tried looking on Amazon or Newegg?
I have. It seems they are all either counterfeit or 300+ dollars for even a x540. I suppose I might as well go with the x550 on eBay if those are my choices.
I just worry about malware and such being embedded in things like that. Hopefully it’s more just some shadow parts being made after hours for easy cash vs something more malicious.
Those same back doors are in the actual OEM product too, so if you’re doing top secret / shady stuff, probably best to air gap?
How about the old and faithful x520-da2 and some 10gtek or mikrotik RJ45 transceivers?
Have you considered asus’s XG-C100C?
I have one in rog discuise that came with my motherboard. Works in both Windows and Linux, and cost about 100 usd new.
Most of the non-Intel branded Intel NICs are not “counterfeit.” Intel deliberately sells their Ethernet controllers to OEMs to integrate into their own NICs or motherboards. The main implication of buying one of these is that you can’t go to Intel for warranty claims. I’ve bought the 10Gtek/Ipolex branded NICs before and they work fine with the same drivers as the Intel branded versions.
Interesting, I’ll look into those brands as well. Do you know if the firmware is cross-compatible as well?
And no worries on warranty claims. This will be used in a home environment.
I’m not sure. Looking at the downloads for the X540 adapter, for example, there aren’t really any firmware updates available. There are updates for the UEFI driver and boot ROM, but I’m not sure you’ll need this for a home environment as I think these are mainly applicable for booting from iSCSI or FCoE. PXE boot will probably work without updates.
This is not totally related to the question, but I have had success flashing LSI IT mode firmware to a Dell PERC 6 RAID controller based on the same LSI controller. In principle there could be a similar situation with NICs if you do get a NIC with upgradable firmware but do your research first on the specific NIC.
I tend to go for Broadcom 57810S (OEM enterprise surplus) adapters…because they’re cheap…and they work.
I gotta try some of these. Being like $32 for a 2x10GBaseT NIC is pretty damn good
Fair warning if you plan to use it in a quiet setup, might want to swap that fan out. If you do, make sure the card can “see” a fan signal or it will shut down. Ask me how I know 
Looks like the same fan on some of the Intel X540-T2s that are on ebay (I got one of these already). Definitely noisy little fans. I’d be interested in how you swap out the fans on these or which fan models aren’t so damn noisy
A 40X40X10 Noctua or equivalent 12V fan should work pretty perfectly. I used a 40X40X20 I had extra from a 1U project. I sacrificed the stock fan for it’s connection as I don’t have a connector that small. Just soldered the wires color to color and screwed the fan on where the old one was.
If you have a nearby fan header open, just plug the signal wire into the card and the power into the motherboard. That way you can use the low noise adapters easily.
As it so happens, I have some of those same Noctua fans from another project. How would you mount them? Got some pics if you could highlight it:
That card looks a lot different than the Broadcom type I have. Mine is more like this…
I was able to just bolt the fan on. On the up side, it appears the one you show does not have a signal wire which means likely the card wouldn’t care if you wanted to just use a fan header on the motherboard (some testing should be done to make sure). Mounting a standard fan to that heat sink looks quite tricky… How loud is that stock fan? If nothing else, how much room do you have below the card once you install it in your case? Might be a better plan to mount a fan in your case to blow air at the card instead of mounting the fan on it. 10Gb cards (especially older models) tend to get quite hot…you don’t want your fan to fall off.
